MEMOIR 


OF 


James  William  Beekman. 

PREPARED  AT  THE  REQUEST  OF  THE 

SAINT  NICHOLAS  SOCIETY 


OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


BY 


DWARD 


DE 


ANCEY, 


of  jiff 

APR  a y ojo 

ILLINOIS. 


NEW  YORK; 

PUBLISHED  BY  THE  SOCIETY. 


1877. 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2016  with  funding  from 

University  of  Illinois  Urbana-Champaign  Alternates 


https://archive.org/details/memoirofjameswilOOdela 


z'tf,  2,  '33.  £ 


Presented  by  vote  of 
Directors  Sept.  19, 1921 


B J 


EXTRACT  FROM  THE  MINUTES  OF  THE 
SAINT  NICHOLAS  SOCIETY. 

At  a Special  Meeting,  held  at  Delmonico’s,  Madison  Square,  on 
the  12th  day  of  November,  1877,  after  the  reading  of  the  following 
Memoir  of  James  William  Beekman  by  Mr.  Edward  F.  de  Lancey,  it 
was  resolved  : 

“ That  the  thanks  of  the  Society  be  tendered  to  Mr.  de  Lancey 
for  his  very  able  and  instructive  paper,  and  that  a copy  be  requested 
for  preservation  among  the  archives  of  the  Society,  and  that  it  be 
printed  by  the  Society  for  distribution  among  the  members.” 

Attest : 

JOHN  C.  MILLS, 

Secretary. 


X 


MEMOIR 


OF 

James  William  Beekman. 


A week  had  hardly  elapsed  after  the  summer  meet- 
ing of  the  Society,  when  the  announcement  was  made 
that  one  of  our  oldest  and  most  honored  members 
had  been  taken  from  us, — James  William  Beekman 
was  no  more.  A deep  pang  of  sorrow  went  to 
every  heart.  Calmly,  in  the  soft  air  of  early  summer, 
in  his  own  house  and  city,  and  surrounded  by  his 
children,  on  the  15th  of  last  June  his  spirit  gently 
passed  from  earth. 

To  him  a kind  Providence  vouchsafed  the  privilege 
of  dying  in  the  place  where  he  was  born — a privilege, 
in  this  age  and  land  of  unwonted  activity  and  per- 
petual change,  rarely  granted  to,  and  as  rarely  appre- 
ciated by,  us  Americans. 

Fitting  it  was  that  his  life  should  end  in  this  city  of 
New  York,  with  which  his  own  name,  and  that  of  the 
ancient  family  from  which  he  sprang,  had  been  so 
long  and  so  honorably  connected. 

In  the  course  of  his  life  he  had  been  absent  from  it 
much,  had  traveled  often  and  far,  in  America,  in 


6 


Europe,  and  in  the  Orient ; and  of  late  had  passed  a 
very  large  part  of  every  year  at  his  beautiful  seat  on 
the  waters  of  Long  Island  Sound  ; yet  he  was  per- 
mitted to  draw  his  last  breath  where  he  had  drawn 
his  first,  in  the  city  he  so  truly  loved,  and  which  he 
never  forgot  had  been  New  Amsterdam  before  it  be- 
came New  York. 

No  descendant  of  the  old  Hollanders  and  Hugue- 
nots who  founded  this  city  ever  bore  it  a stronger 
filial  affection.  There  was  no  more  striking  trait  in 
Mr.  Beekman’s  character  than  the  eagerness  with 
which  he  ever  entered  into  whatever  would  promote 
New  York  feeling,  and  New  York  interests,  civil, 
commercial,  aesthetical,  social,  moral,  religious,  or 
charitable.  And  with  this  trait,  too,  he  had  the 
liberality  to  aid,  the  mind  to  plan,  and  the  hand  to 
execute. 

The  head  of  the  ancient  family  of  Beekman,  he  was 
born  on  the  22nd  of  November,  1815,  and  was  the 
only  son  of  Gerard  Beekman,  of  New  York,  and 
Catherine  Sanders,  his  wife,  a lady  of  one  of  the 
oldest  families  of  Albany. 

He  was  of  the  sixth  generation  of  Beekmans  in 
America,  and  the  fifth  in  direct  descent  from  that 
William  Beekman  who  first  landed  in  New  Amster- 
dam with  Director-General  Stuyvesant,  on  the  27th 
of  May,  1647,  two  hundred  and  thirty  years  and  a half 
ago,  and  who  was  subsequently  so  prominent  in  the 
public  affairs  of  the  province,  and  Vice-Governor  of  the 
Dutch  colony  on  the  Delaware. 

Although  William  Beekman  was  a native  of  Statselt, 
in  the  province  of  Overyssel,  in  Holland,  the  family 


7 


is  of  German  origin.  His  father,  Henry  Beekman, 
having  been  driven  from  Berge,  in  Germany,  on  ac- 
count of  his  Protestantism,  fled  to  Holland,  of  which 
his  wife  was  a native,  and  where  he  ever  afterward 
dwelt.* 

A man  of  some  means,  William  Beekman  brought 
out  to  New  Amsterdam  a few  families  of  Germans, 
whom  he  settled  about  ninety  miles  above  New  Am- 
sterdam, upon  the  eastern  bank  of  the  Hudson,  at  a 
place  to  which,  from  their  native  riv.er,  and  the  first 
syllable  of  the  patronymic  of  their  patron,  they  gave 
the  name  so  familiar  to  our  ears  at  this  day — Rhine- 
beck.  f 

On  his  mother’s  side,  James  William  Beekman  was 
a lineal  descendant  of  Major  John  Alexander  Glen, 
of  Scotia,  on  the  Mohawk,  opposite  Schenectady,  of 
which  latter  place  he  had  the  command  when  it  was 
attacked  and  burned  by  the  French  in  mid-winter, 
1689.  It  was  this  officer  whose  life  and  property 
they  spared,  on  that  night’s  merciless  massacre,  because 
he  had,  by  a stratagem,  once  rescued  a Jesuit  mission- 
ary from  death  at  the  stake  by  the  hands  of  the  Mo- 
hawks. J 

In  Mr.  Beekman’s  veins  ran  the  blood  of  De  Bough, 
Abeel,  De  la  Noy,  Keteltas,  Sanders,  Glen,  and  Ten 
Broeck.  He  was  thus  of  almost  unmixed  Dutch  and 
Huguenot  descent,  and  hardly  a drop  of  English  blood 
beat  in  his  heart. 


* Holgate’s  American  Genealogies,  “Beekman.” 
f Ibid. 

\ Communicated  by  Mr.  Beekman  himself.  See,  also,  O’Callaghan’s  and  Brodhead’s 
Histories  of  New  Netherland. 


8 


Educated  in  New  York,  Mr.  Beekman  graduated  at 
Columbia  College,  in  1834,  and  afterward  studied  law 
in  the  office  of  the  late  John  L.  Mason,  not  with  the 
idea  of  practicing,  but  merely  to  acquire  that  general 
knowledge  of  its  principles  which  should  be  possessed 
by  every  gentleman. 

His  father,  who  died  the  year  before  he  graduated, 
left  him  an  independent  fortune.  Subsequently  his 
uncle  James,  after  whom  he  was  named,  left  him  the 
large  landed  estate  of  the  family  on  the  East  River, 
with  its  historic  mansion,  built  by  his  grandfather, 
James  Beekman,  a little  after  the  middle  of  the  last 
century.  His  marriage  to  Miss  Abian  Milledoler,  a 
daughter  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Milledoler,  the  late  well- 
known  Dutch  clergyman,  occurred  in  1840.  He  then 
refitted  the  old  house  for  his  home,  reverently  pre- 
serving all  its  antique  features  and  objects  of  interest, 
and  there  dwelt  till  forced  from  its  occupancy  by  the 
resistless  progress  of  the  city’s  growth.  Even  then  he 
did  not  suffer  it  to  be  destroyed,  but  built  an  extra 
foundation  to  keep  it  up,  when  the  lines  of  a new 
street  cut  down  the  hill  upon  which  it  stood.  Thus 
it  remained  many  years  longer,  and  was  only  re- 
moved finally  a very  short  time  ago.  And  when  its 
last  day  did  come,  Mr.  Beekman,  with  characteristic 
feeling  and  generosity,  presented  the  great  carved 
wooden  mantel-piece  and  chimney  breast,  with  its 
tiled  fire-place,  which  adorned  its  drawing-room,  to 
the  New  York  Historical  Society,  which  has  carefully 
re-erected  them  in  its  Library  Building,  where  they 
can  now  be  seen. 

This  Beekman  House,  -though  built  as  late  in  the 


9 


colonial  days  as  1763,  was  of  marked  historic  interest, 
from  the  scenes  of  the  American  Revolution  which  it 
had  witnessed,  and  the  actors  in  those  scenes  who  had 
dwelt  within  its  walls. 

It  saw  Lamb’s  midnight  surprise  and  capture  of  the 
King’s  magazine  in  the  little  cove  of  Turtle  Bay, 
almost  beneath  its  very  windows,  in  the  night 
of  the  20th  of  July,  1775.  The  next  year,  on 
Sunday,  the  15th  of  September,  1776,  its  inmates 
looked  down  upon  the  most  magnificent  spectacle  the 
waters  of  New  York  had  ever  seen.  Covered  by  a 
furious  cannonade  from  five  frigates  lying  in  the 
stream,  Howe’s  great  army,  embarked  in  a crescent- 
shaped flotilla  of  three  hundred  boats,  glittering  in 
scarlet  and  steel  under  a brilliant  September  sun, 
swept  in  magnificent  array  from  the  shores  of  Long 
Island  across  the  East  River,  and  landed  in  triumph 
at  Kip’s  Bay.  They  saw  then,  too,  as  the  boats 
touched  the  shore  and  the  first  “thin  red  line”  quickly 
formed,  the  “ dastardly  conduct”  of  the  panic-stricken 
troops  of  Connecticut  fleeing  from  their  intrench- 
ments,  and  the  rage  and  despair  of  Washington  at 
whose  voice,  command,  and  threats,  they  refused  to 
rally ; and  who  himself,  in  a paroxysm  of  anger, 
dashed  his  hat  upon  the  ground,  and  had  to  be  led 
from  the  spot  by  the  hand  of  an  aid-de-camp,  to  avoid 
certain  capture,  if  not  death.* 


* Letter  of  Col.  Nicholas  Fish,  Hist.  Mag.,  2d  series,  vol.  ii,  p.  335  Greene’s 
letter  to  Gov.  Cooke,  of  Rhode  Island,  Force’s  Archives,  vol.  ii,  p.  370,  5th  series  5 
Gordon’s  History,  vol.  ii,  p.  32,7  5 Irving’s  Washington,  vol.  ii,  p.  353;  Littell’s 
Graydon’s  Memoirs,  p.  174. 


IO 

Within  its  walls,  on  the  night  of  that  same  day,  Sir 
William  Howe  established  his  headquarters,  and  it 
remained  in  his  possession  till  the  succeeding  May. 

The  lurid  light  of  the  great  fire  glared  through  its 
casements  on  the  night  of  the  21st  of  September, 

1 776.  In  the  greenhouse  in  its  garden,  cleared  for  the 
occasion,  sat,  a few  evenings  later,  the  court-martial 
which  condemned  to  death  the  youthful  Nathan 
Hale — he  who,  at  Washington’s  personal  request, 
became  a spy,  and  unhappily  taken  in  the  act,  un- 
dauntedly met  the  death  of  a spy — thereby  proving 
himself  one  of  the  bravest  as  well  as  purest  patriots 
whom  the  Revolution  produced. 

In  this  house,  too,  dwelt  for  a year  and  a half  that 
magnificent  beauty  of  Boston,  whose  Sultana-like 
charms  were  as  fatal  to  Sir  William  Howe  as  were 
those  of  the  Egyptian  Queen  to  Marc  Antony — the 
celebrated  Mrs.  Lorin^. 

o 

It  was  afterward,  in  succession,  the  headquarters  of 
Sir  Henry  Clinton ; General  Robertson,  the  last  royal 
governor  of  New  York  ; and  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  the 
last  of  the  British  Commanders-in-chief.*  Clinton 
possessed  it  for  three  years  and  a half — from  October, 
1778,  to  April,  1782.  During  this  period  it  was  occu- 
pied, after  their  return  from  captivity  in  Western 
Virginia,  by  the  chivalrous  commander  of  the  Ger- 
man troops  of  Burgoyne’s  captured  army,  Baron  de 
Riedesel  and  his  fair,  beautiful,  and  charming  wife, 
with  their  young  children,  for  whom  it  had  been 


* It  was  the  summer  residence  of  the  British  Commanders  during  the  whole  war. 


kindly  given  up  for  a brief  period,  that  the  latter 
might  there  undergo  the  dread  ordeal  of  inoculation. 
In  the  summer  of  1780  the  Baron  and  his  wife  again 
accepted  Clinton’s  invitation  to  pass  there  the  summer 
months,  he  himself  often  visiting  them.  “ The  last 
time  he  came  to  see  us,”  says  this  charming  lady  in 
her  journal,  which  has  recently  been  given  to  the 
world,  “he  had  with  him  the  unfortunate — as  he  after- 
wards became — Major  Andre  ; who,  the  day  after,  set 
out  upon  the  fatal  expedition  in  which  he  was  captured 
by  the  Americans  and  hung  as  a spy.” 

The  walls  of  that  house  probably  heard  some  of  the 
latest,  if  not  the  very  last,  of  their  consultations  upon 
the  nefarious  plot  of  Arnold.  From  its  door,  grace- 
fully bidding  adieu  to  the  beautiful  Baroness,  rode 
Clinton  and  Andre  to  attend  the  farewell  dinner  given 
that  very  evening  by  his  brother  officers  to  the  latter 
before  he  started  on  his  ill-starred  expedition,  at  the 
old  Kip  House,  at  Kip’s  Bay,  They  knew  he  was  to 
leave  on  a matter  of  military  importance,  but  that  was 
all,  and  little  could  they  gather  from  the  remarkable 
toast  given  by  Sir  Henry  Clinton  at  that  brilliant 
table,  “The  health  of  Major  Andre,  who  leaves  us  to- 
morrow to  return  Sir  John  Andre.” 

From  its  broad  piazza,  far  across  the  beautiful  river 
and  its  fair  island,  in  the  cool  days  of  autumn  at  this 
period,  could  often  be  heard  the  huntsman’s  horn,  and 
sometimes  seen,  the  scarlet  coats,  gay  habits,  and 
dashing  horses,  of  the  hunters  and  huntresses,  as  they 
pursued  the  flying  hounds  and  fox  over  the  meadows, 
hills,  and  vales,  of  Newtown,  — a sport  maintained 


by  the  English  officers  and  their  American  friends 
during  almost  the  entire  British  occupation.* 

When  Sir  Guy  Carleton,  after  performing  his  duties 
in  the  closing  scenes  of  the  British  possession,  had 
in  concert  with  Washington  fixed  the  time  for  the 
evacuation,  he,  a few  days  beforehand,  departed  for  the 
last  time  from  the  Beekman  House — leaving  it  in  the 
custody  of  its  old  gardener,  who  had  steadily  retained 
his  place  under  all  its  different  occupants.f  And  how 
well  he  performed  the  duties  of  his  station  was  unex- 
pectedly and  agreeably  proven  on  the  25th  of  Novem- 
ber, 1 783.  That  morning  General  Washington,  who 
had  stayed  the  few  days  preceding  at  General  Morris’s, 
at  Morrisania  ; Governor  Clinton,  who  had  stayed  at 
Mr.  Frederick  Van  Cortlandt’s,  at  Kingsbridge,  and 
General  Knox,  who  had  stayed  at  Mrs.  de  Lancey’s, 
at  Rosehill,  West  Farms  J (the  widow  of  Peter  de 
Fancey  and  daughter  of  Governor  Colden),  left  these 
three  houses  early,  and  rode  to  Harlem  to  join  their 
troops  and  make  together  their  triumphant  entry  into 
New  York. 

As  the  city  was  not  to  be  given  up  till  the  middle 
of  the  day,  the  column  moved  slowly.  As  it  passed 
the  Beekman  House,  these  officers,  their  staffs,  and 
a few  civilians  who  accompanied  them,  were  enter- 


* Communicated  to  the  writer  some  years  ago  by  one  who  often  personally 
enjoyed  these  hunts. 

-j-  He  kept  a written  memorandum  of  the  names  of  the  different  occupants  and 
the  time  each  was  in  possession,  which  is  still  in  the  Beekman  family.  His  name 
was  John  Hannah. 

J MS.  letter  of  Gen.  William  Hull,  dated  November  16th,  1783,  stating  these 
arrangements,  as  made  by  him  with  the  gentlemen  and  the  lady  named. 


13 


tained  in  its  drawing-room  with  punch  made  with 
lemons  plucked  from  trees  growing  in  the  green- 
house.* Thus,  strangely  enough,  his  first  social  glass 
to  America  wholly  free,  was  drank  by  the  Great  Chief 
in  the  old  Headquarters  of  the  British  Commanders, 
and  in  sight  of  the  very  place  where  he  had  been  mo- 
mentarily unmanned  by  the  result  of  one  of  the  first 
of  their  successes  seven  years  before. 

These  striking  memories  of  his  ancestral  home, 
which  appealed  so  strongly  to  Mr.  Beekman’s  native 
love  for  the  days  and  times  of  old,  were  the  cause  of 
his  persistent  preservation  of  the  venerable  mansion 
for  long  years  after  almost  any  other  man  would  have 
had  it  removed. 

The  city’s  expansion,  at  the  same  time  that  it 
forced  him  from  his  house,  also  threw  upon  him  the 
management  of  the  large  estate  surrounding  it.  To 
this  duty  he  gave  his  personal  attention  and  care,  and 
it  absorbed  all  the  time  that  men  in  business  usually 
devote  to  their  avocations.  He  had  to  learn,  and  did 
learn,  when  to  build,  where  to  build  and  how  to  build  ; 
and,  what  was  perhaps  hardest  of  all,  when  and  where 
not  to  build. 

The  knowledge  he  thus  acquired,  of  what  may 
be  termed  aedileship,  he  subsequently  utilized  in  the 
many  boards  of  management  of  the  charitable,  lite- 
rary, and  religious  corporations  in  which  he  became 
, so  ardently  engaged  during  his  later  life. 

A strong  supporter  of  the  common  school  system, 
when  the  schools  were  really  common  schools,  he 


* Commcnicated  by  Mr.  Beekman  himself. 


14 


served  for  a time  as  a member  of  the  Board  of 
Education. 

He  was  earnest  and  active  as  a Trustee  of  Co- 
lumbia College,  the  Woman’s  Hospital,  the  old  New 
York  Hospital,  and  was  connected  with  many  other 
charitable  and  religious  associations. 

Mr.  Beekman  early  took  an  interest  in  politics. 
He  was  a hard  worker,  a wise  counsellor,  and  a clear 
but  not  an  eloquent  speaker,  although  oftentimes 
both  humorous  and  witty. 

He  was  elected  to  the  Assembly  from  the  old  sixth 
district  of  the  city  in  1848,  and  served  during  1849. 
In  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  he  was  chosen  a 
Senator  from  the  city,  and  served  during  the  years 
1850  and  1851.  He  was  a Whig — a Silver  Gray 
Whig — and  opposed  strenuously  that  policy  of  his 
party  leaders  which,  yielding  to  a kind  of  radicalism, 
wielded  by  a powerful  but  malign  influence,  now 
passed  away,  eventuated  finally  in  the  destruction 
and  extinction  of  that  great  political  party.  He  was 
too  honest  a man  to  yield  his  convictions  in  matters 
of  principle,  and  too  independent  to  bend  the  sup- 
pliant knee  to  self-appointed  dispensers  of  party 
power.  At  the  end  of  his  senatorial  term  he  with- 
drew from  politics,  and  never  could  be  induced  to 
re-enter  the  field. 

In  the  spring  of  1861  Mr.  Beekman,  the  late  Eras- 
tus  Corning,  of  Albany,  and  Mr.  Thurlow  Weed  were 
appointed  by  a meeting  of  conservative  men  in  New 
York,  as  representatives  of  the  Conservative  Whig, 
the  Democratic,  and  Radical  Whig  parties,  to  go  to 
Washington  and  urge  President  Buchanan  to  relieve 


i5 


Fort  Sumpter,  and  stamp  out  the  incipient  rebellion. 
The  latter  did  not  go,  but  Mr.  Beekman  and  Mr. 
Corning  did,  and  urged  measures  which,  if  honestly 
carried  out,  might  have  obviated  that  great  calamity.* 
On  the  outbreak  of  hostilities,  however,  Mr.  Beekman 
strongly  supported  the  National  Government,  and  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  a club  instituted  for  its  support 
in  this  city,  called  the  Union  League  Club,  of  which 
he  was  for  a time  vice-president,  and  which  in  a 
slightly  different  form  still  exists. 

Thirty-one  years  ago,  on  the  9th  of  June,  1846, 
Mr.  Beekman  became  a member  of  the  St.  Nicholas 
Society,  and  from  that  time  to  his  death  we  all  know 
his  earnestness  and  activity  in  everything  pertaining 
to  its  objects,  interests  and  welfare,  and  how  greatly 
he  enjoyed  its  intellectual  meetings  and  its  social 
festivals.  In  1850  he  was  chosen  one  of  the  stew- 
ards, and  in  1852  was  elected  a manager,  which 
office  he  held  at  the  time  of  his  death.  For  the 
four  years  from  1863  to  1866,  inclusive,  he  was 
third  vice-president ; and  in  the  autumn  of  the  latter 
year  was  elected  president,  and  served  most  accept- 
ably as  such  for  the  years  1868  and  1869.  He 
closed  his  official  term  by  delivering,  on  the  4th  of 
December  in  the  latter  year,  before  the  Society,  an 
address  on  “ The  Founders  of  New  York,”  which  for 
its  great  interest,  wide  information,  keen  humor,  and 
high  literary  finish,  will  be  long  remembered  by  all 
who  heard  it,  and  which  the  Society  honored  itself  by 
publishing  in  an  enduring  form. 


* Mr.  Beekman’s  letter  of  Nov.  3,  1876,  to  the  editors  of  the  Evening  Post . 


For  many  years  he  was  a member  of  the  Century 
Club.  On  the  formation  of  the  St.  Nicholas  Club, 
in  which  he  took  an  ardent  interest,  he  was  unani- 
mously chosen  its  first  president.  How  well  he 
adorned  his  office,  and  how  efficiently  he  promoted 
the  interests  of  that  club,  its  present  prosperity  suf- 
ficiently attests.  The  very  last  day  he  was  out,  the 
Thursday  before  the  Paas  meeting  of  that  Club,  he  was 
engaged  in  inviting  special  friends  to  that  festival. 
The  writer  accidentally  met  him  on  that  morning  in 
the  office  of  a mutual  friend,  to  whom  he  brought  a 
card  of  invitation.  As  he  presented  it  he  urged  the 
gentleman  to  be  sure  to  come,  saying  that  he  should 
not  only  be  there,  but  “should  make  a little  speech  on 
the  occasion.”  Alas  ! before  that  day  arrived,  he  was 
seized  with  the  attack  to  which  he  finally  succumbed. 

I cannot  close  this  brief  memoir  of  our  friend  with- 
out adverting  to  his  long  connexion,  for  more  than  a 
generation,  with  the  New  York  Historical  Society. 
Its  objects  were  dear  to  his  heart,  and  early  and  late, 
in  season  and  out  of  season,  he  labored  in  its  behalf. 
He  gave  freely  to  its  objects,  and  to  its  collections. 
For  forty  years,  save  one,  he  was  an  active  member, 
and  his  interest  in  it  never  flagged  ; and  at  the  time 
of  his  death  he  was  one  of  its  Vice-Presidents,  and  a 
member  of  its  Executive  Committee.  Entering  its  Li- 
brary one  morning,  hardly  three  years  ago,  the  writer 
found  the  Librarian  examining  two  large,  splendidly- 
bound  folio  volumes,  most  beautifully  printed  in  the 
Dutch  language.  “ See,”  said  he,  “ here  is  the  finest 
copy  in  America  of  the  first  Dutch  Bible  ever  printed 
in  Holland.  It  is  a perfect  treasure,  and  has  just  been 


1 7 


given  to  us  by  Mr.  Beekman.”  He  had,  indeed,  done 
so.  Learning  that  this  rare  work  was  for  sale  in  the 
city,  he  at  once,  after  satisfying  himself  of  its  genuine- 
ness, bought  it  though  held  at  a large  price,  and  sent 
it  to  the  Library.  Such  was  Mr.  Beekman’s  last  gift 
to  that  Society,  and  it  was  characteristic  of  the  man  in 
more  ways  than  one.  For  he  was  a true  Christian 
gentleman,  a student  of  the  Bible,  and  a warm  mem- 
ber of  the  old  Church  of  Holland,  the  Church  of  his 
ancestors  and  himself,  in  which  he  was  born,  in  which 
he  died,  and  in  which  he  was  buried.  This  did  not, 
however,  prevent  him  from  attending  the  Presbyterian 
Church  of  his  warm  personal  friend,  Dr.  John  Hall, 
nor  sometimes  the  services  of  the  Episcopal  Church. 
But  his  religious  principles  never  varied.  He  has 
gone  to  his  reward.  Long  will  this  Society  remember 
the  bright,  genial,  temperament,  the  lively,  cultured, 
conversation,  the  quick,  sportive,  witty,  remarks,  the 
cordial  manners,  the  sound  head,  and  the  warm  heart, 
of  James  William  Beekman.  A truer  New-Yorker 
we  shall  never  see,  a nobler  Hollander  we  shall  never 
know, 

“ Of  soul  sincere, 

In  action  faithful,  in  honor  clear.” 


THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 
APR  2 9 tSft 

UNlytnoiil  uf  ILLINOIS, 


